Dancer's Shoes
by signelchan
Summary: Olivia would never let young Inigo wear a pair of shoes not meant for a dancer. No matter what. [Modern AU.]


From the moment she was able to, Olivia loved putting little dancer shoes on her son's feet. They weren't the cheapest of shoes, and he was always growing out of them, but to see her precious Inigo with tiny ballet flats or tap shoes on his feet filled her heart with gushing pride and flooded her mind of fantasies of him following in her steps and becoming a dancer when he grew up. She wanted him to experience life just as she had, although she knew that ultimately the choice would be his when he got older, but at least as a small child she could pretend to have things her way by getting him to wear shoes just like ones she had trained in, ones she had spent hours of effort perfecting herself in.

Everyone she knew questioned why she was doing this to her son, even though she would always tell them that she was doing it because it meant the world to her. To them, it was just her throwing away the money she had made being successful at dancing on a child that she had never once asked for. To her, it was trying to make something out of easily the worst thing that had happened to her—she hadn't expected to fall in love with a rival dance instructor, she hadn't expected to fall into romantic nights after her shows with him, and she certainly hadn't expected to have a child out of it. All the people who knew Olivia had seen firsthand the damage that her having a baby had done not just to her reputation in the dance community but to her raw talent as well. She wasn't as graceful on her feet as she had been before, her movements seemingly hampered by a lack of focus on her dancing.

Her mind, whenever she was on stage in the months after having Inigo, was always on him. She couldn't help but think about her son and what he was doing or who he was with, and it was a distraction from her work, especially when she'd see the man who had fathered him and her thoughts would track back to how her talent had brought her romance and a child that she hadn't once expected to have. That beautiful, almost unreal child.

She decided to step aside from dancing after a year of slowly losing touch with what she was doing, claiming that she wanted to focus on her son. While that certainly was true, the dance community as a whole knew that she'd been focusing on him almost wholly for long before that, and that this was just her way of escaping the society that had put her in her current situation. Never once did she refute those claims, but the way she always insisted on buying her son dance shoes proved that, although she personally wasn't getting up on stage to dance before audiences, she had every intention of getting Inigo to do just that. Seeing him become a successful dancer just like she had was her dream for him, and she was not going to give that up easily.

He would grow out of the expensive shoes so quickly, and she'd always, without fail, pay to replace them with bigger ones. Never ones that were too big, because a dance shoe had to fit perfectly, so she was constantly having to go out and spend what money she had saved up from her career to replace what he no longer could wear. It was a losing battle she fought, to keep him wearing perfect dance shoes, and once the funds she had put away were gone she had to resort to asking someone else for assistance.

Going to his father was not the option she would have taken, but if there was one thing that Olivia knew about the man she had fallen deeply in love with in all the wrong ways, it was that he had more money from being a dance instructor than she ever had from being a dancer. What was he doing with all that money, aside from paying for expensive dates that he'd take all the popular dancers out on? Surely he could spare a _little_ something for his son's shoes. Perhaps it was because she really hadn't mentioned the child to his father, or perhaps it was because she hadn't made much of an attempt to let him know the boy, but before he'd share any money for the cause he insisted on getting to spend some time with Inigo. She didn't object, mostly because she still so very much loved this man and would do anything to make him happy, and so, in order to get what she wanted, she let her son and his father spend a single afternoon together.

It went almost perfectly, definitely worth the cost of a new pair of ballet shoes for Inigo to wear, but there was one thing that nagged at Olivia's mind as she watched this man play with the child she cared so fiercely about. He didn't seem to see the boy as his child, much like he never seemed to have seen Olivia as a soulmate. She had given her all to this man, and he had given her what she considered her greatest treasure in return, but other than that, there really was nothing shared between them. As she listened to how he spoke to the boy, she heard him boasting about his romantic conquests, seemingly teasing Inigo for being the product of one such hookup.

That was when Olivia told herself she wasn't going to rely on some guy who didn't care about her or her son for what she wanted in life. But then, as she was steeling herself to tell him to get lost, she heard him say something that had never come up in their dates, their nightly escapades, their _fling_. She heard him talk about another woman, with another child. The name he used sounded familiar to her ears, one that she hadn't heard since she had left professional dancing behind, and after some thought she placed it as belonging to the assistant that had always been at this man's side.

He wasn't in love with anyone but himself. Women were a fun time, not a serious commitment. And that was it. "I c-can't let you be here anymore…" she stammered, her face lighting up red like fire. The man, his attention drawn from the child to her, gave her a shocked expression and implored her to explain why. "B-because you don't care. This means n-nothing to you."

"My darling, of course this means something to me." He stood up from where he was seated on the floor, which in turn caused Inigo to get up as well, his balance unsteady on bare feet. "You have a child here who will someday carry both of our names into the spotlight once more. After all, you are nothing more than a footnote to history, and someday I will be too. We have to rely on our progeny to carry on our legacies, and this child you have here will be fit for just that."

"Is that all h-he means to you?" She took a deep breath, expecting him to tell her she spoke the truth, and when he nodded she couldn't help but tear up. "I thought what w-we had was s-special. Not something that means nothing."

"Oh hush, it means something. All women mean something to me, especially the ones I allow myself to have children with. Young Inigo here will someday be a famous dancer, and his claim to fame will be his young talent of a mother and his spectacular instructor of a father—and nothing can take the noble blood we've given him away." He reached for the boy to grab him and hold him close, but Olivia slapped his wrist and caused him to look at her and glare. "What was that for? Surely you know that damaging someone as fine as myself is never okay!"

"Don't you ever touch my baby again." She dropped her stuttering, rage filling within her. "In fact, don't ever thing about him again. Think about your _other_ children. Don't think about my Inigo."

Said child tried to say something, but all he managed was a long whine seeing his mom and this strange man fighting. "Must you do this before the child? He will think that we are fighting people, and neither of us are. Calm down and let everything remain as it is."

"I can't, Virion!" Saying his name felt wrong to her, and she swore to herself that she wouldn't ever do it again unless she had to. "I can't, not when I know that you love _all_ women, not just me! I thought we had something special, but we didn't. I was just a dancer, you were just a man who wanted anything he could get. I shouldn't have come to you for anything after what you gave me. And I won't do it again."

He shrugged, running fingers through his hair as he did. "Fair enough, but let it be known that the one who stopped your son from being able to succeed in life is you. If you let me, the man behind many successful dancers and their careers, be in his life, he will go far. But with you and you alone? He won't ever get the chance." He went to the door, bid a farewell, and left without leaving any sort of aid for Olivia to use to raise the child.

It hurt her to know that she was now completely on her own, with no chance of ever finding the love she thought there had been between her and Inigo's father, but it was for the best. She packed up, moved to a new town where she wasn't known for being a dancer who had fallen out of her career due to having a child, and started a new life.

And she made absolute sure that every single pair of shoes Inigo ever knew were ones meant for dancers.

* * *

The first day of kindergarten was the first time Inigo had been around other kids his own age in his life, and he was quite excited about getting to make friends. When Olivia walked him up to the door of his new classroom, though, all of that excitement faded and he was clinging to his mom's leg like he never wanted her to leave. "Please not today," he mumbled, his face buried in her skirt. "There are _other kids_ here."

"That's how school is, dearie. It'll be okay, I promise. You'll make friends and have fun and it'll be fine." Olivia ruffled her son's hair and tried to continue into the classroom, so that she could meet the teacher and Inigo could go start talking to other kids. There was no such luck, as he impeded all forward movement until she could pry him off of her, but then he started to cry, and she felt slightly bad about the whole situation. There wasn't any way she could take him back home, she knew that, and that meant that the only way to deal with things was to just let him cry and get over it. She didn't like the sound of him whining, but she wasn't going to be able to stop him without making a mistake, and there was no way she was prepared to have to teach him at home. The thought crossed her mind for a second that she could send him to a private dance academy like she had attended, but she shook that off, letting it escape her completely when she saw another little boy approaching Inigo.

"Mom, please stop this," he choked out, but she kissed him and told him to behave himself with his new friend, and then she was off to speak to the teacher about her son's lack of people skills up to that point. It left him standing there, with a blond kid with several bandages on his arms and a hand covering part of his face approaching him. "Uh. Hi there?" Still somewhat crying, the greeting Inigo gave was shaky and garbled, but the boy who had come up to him understood him completely and was eager to reply.

"Hi there? Hi there t'you! I'm Owain! My momma said that I should say hi to everyone! She said it's nice to be nice!" The boy, grinning at Inigo behind his hand, gave the newcomer an once-over, paying close attention to his shoes. "What's on your feet? Are they shoes? I have shoes that light up. Wanna see them?"

Without being able to give an answer, Inigo was treated to Owain jumping up and down a few times, the sides of his shoes flashing different colors as he did. "That's…cool." It was all Inigo knew to say, before looking down at his own ballet shoes. "But mine are cool too. My mom likes them."

"Yours don't light up. What do they do?" It wasn't meant to be a challenge, but these boys were mere kindergarteners, and the multiple meanings of words were lost on them. By all means, Inigo could have just told Owain that they were meant for dancing, but instead, he decided to show him.

Olivia, being broken from her conversation with the teacher by the sound of her son's screaming as he managed to kick another student mid-spin, only slightly regretted ever wanting her son to be a dancer. At least he was putting those expensive shoes to use.

* * *

 **A/N: Wrote this to honor Inigo's birthday, but it seems that it focused a hell of a lot more on his mom than him. Whoops. Also I actually liked the supports between Olivia and Virion, but I needed someone who's a womanizer to be the "bad" guy here and that meant he got the role. :c**


End file.
